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Modeling Imprecision in Engineering Design

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Fuzzy Sets in Engineering Design and Configuration

Part of the book series: International Series in Intelligent Technologies ((ISIT,volume 9))

Abstract

The background, terminology, and theory of a technique (called the Method of Imprecision or MOI) to formally represent and manipulate imprecise information in engineering design calculations is reviewed here [3, 29, 30, 33, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60]. The method utilizes fuzzy sets to capture designers’ and customers’ preferences. Formal methods for including noise, trade-off strategies and design iteration are included.

Two illustrative examples (one of an air tank design, the other the design of a braking system for a passenger vehicle) are presented. The examples emphasize a compareson of different solution alternatives during preliminary engineering design, involving realistic design complexities and decision criteria. Sample numerical and graphical results are given for the applications, including the imprecise input design variables and output performance variables of the design examples. Normalized measures of the importance of, and coupling between, design variables are also presented.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Engineering Design Research Laboratory Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA

    Erik K. Antonsson Ph.D., P.E.

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    Kevin N. Otto Ph.D.

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Kristin L. Wood Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Erik K. Antonsson Ph.D., P.E.
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  2. Kevin N. Otto Ph.D.
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  3. Kristin L. Wood Ph.D.
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften Operations Research, Templergraben 64, 52062, Aachen, Germany

    Hans-JĂĽrgen Sebastian

  2. Engineering Design Research Laboratory Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, 91125, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Erik K. Antonsson Ph.D., P.E.

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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Antonsson, E.K., Otto, K.N., Wood, K.L. (1996). Modeling Imprecision in Engineering Design. In: Sebastian, HJ., Antonsson, E.K. (eds) Fuzzy Sets in Engineering Design and Configuration. International Series in Intelligent Technologies, vol 9. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1459-2_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-1459-2_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8636-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-1459-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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